DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.3. CAREER PROGRESSION
Three objectives are discussed below in an attempt to provide answers to the broad aim of this study: determining the factors affecting the progression of female academics at Universities of Technology.
5.3.1. Objective 1: To establish barriers that women face in achieving higher education positions at Universities of Technology
More than half of the respondents (55%) agreed that they had not progressed in their careers. On the other hand, 45% of respondents disagreed. This observation shows a clear division of opinion between respondents in agreement and disagreement. In Australia in 1993, Hede and Ralston prefigured that in order to achieve, 50% of women in senior management will take 30 years. In the UK, EOWA (2006) estimated that it would take a further 40 years before female directors equal the number of male directors in FTSE 100 companies. Burke (2006) predicted that it would take 400 years before women achieve senior management in similar proportion to their male counterparts.
The majority of respondents (67%) agreed that the reason why they had not progressed in their careers was that they did not apply for a promotion. According to Blair-Loy (2001) and De la Rey (2012), many women make subtle choices between career and family by “opting out” or deferring marriage and parenting.
Cross tabulations of barriers to non-progression and reasons for not progressing were significant and indicated that the reason for not progressing was due to the respondents not applying for a promotion (p=0.00). Global studies support this notion (Crampton & Mishra, 1999; Van Vianen, 2002; Davidson & Burke, 2004) and found similar attitudes in women who chose to decline executive management positions rather than sacrifice family responsibilities.
Seventy-six per cent (76%) of respondents denied that there was an invisible barrier preventing women from progressing in their careers. This is in contrast with Mathur- Helm (2005), who established that women continue to face barriers such as the glass ceiling even though gender equality awareness was raised after the transformation in South Africa. Cross tabulations of “glass ceiling” and non- progression were found to be significant and indicated that the majority of respondents did not experience invisible barriers to their careers but have not progressed in their careers (p=0.05).
The 24% of respondents who agreed that there is an invisible barrier to the progression of women, identified the main barriers as slower rates of promotion, lack of career development opportunities and significant gaps in earning.
The majority of respondents had been promoted only once and were lecturers. No respondents were professors and there were only 2% who were associate professors. This shows that the progression of women at Universities of Technology in KwaZulu-Natal is moving at a very slow pace. This is interesting in that in South Africa, government passed policies and legislation to redress the wrongs of apartheid, such as the National Women’s Empowerment Policy, the Commission on Gender Equality (1999). The fact remains that even though the South African government has made strides in promoting women’s advancement through policies and legislation, women still find it difficult to rise to senior and executive management positions.
Fifty-seven per cent of respondents indicated that they have not experienced barriers in their careers, whilst 43% have experienced barriers in their careers. This is contrary to Schein (2001) who found that barriers to women in management exist worldwide. She noted that “even though women represent more than 40% of the world’s labour force, their representation in management remains unacceptably low.”
The 47% who experienced barriers in their careers indicated that the organisational barriers that they experienced were lack of internal networking opportunities, no support from their line managers and ethnicity. Cross tabulation of organisational barriers and career progression showed a significant relationship between the variables and indicated that the respondents who experienced organisational barriers did not progress in their careers (p=0.04). Van Vianen (2002) concluded that organisational cultures, policies and practices foster unfavourable processes for career progression of women.
When respondents were asked if they experienced an invisible barrier in their institutions, the majority of respondents (76%) stated that there are no invisible barriers preventing them from progressing in their careers. This is in contrast with Mathur-Helm (2006), whose study reported that 50% of the respondents agreed that the glass ceiling in South Africa’s banking sector definitely existed.
The 24% of respondents who did experience invisible barriers at their institutions, stated that they experienced the following barriers: slower promotion rates, lack of career development opportunities and significant gaps in earnings.
5.3.2. Objective 2: To determine if personality traits influence vertical progression
Respondents agreed that personality traits do influence the vertical progression of women. The majority of respondents (45%) agreed that lack of training and qualification is the main factor preventing women from applying for promotion. The other major factors included lack of work and family life balance. Less than 31% of respondents cited lack of interest, enthusiasm and confidence as factors hindering them from applying for a promotion. Several past studies (Adler, 1993; Booysen, 1999; Mathur-Helm, 2004) claimed that a lack of education is a vital barrier to women’s career advancement. This is supported by this study in which a majority of respondents cited lack of training and qualification as a hindrance to career progression. An empirical research study of Nottingham suggested that balancing work and life is very difficult. Cherry (2001) and Mathur-Helm (2006) found family obligations which lead to work-life balance as the most apparent barrier in professional women’s careers. In South Africa, women sometimes compromise on their careers because family is seen as a woman’s responsibility (Mathur-Helm, 2006).
The majority of respondents agreed that qualifications (49%) and self-motivation (43%) helped them to get to their current position. Mathur-Helm’s (2006) study concurred and showed that women believe that professional qualifications lead to faster growth in one’s career.
The majority of respondents (52%) cited societal norms as a personal barrier experienced to their career progression. This is in line with Adkins (2006), who asserted in a study done in the US and UK that women felt that the greatest barrier to entry they face is from society that has the perception that women are not cut out for executive management. There was a perception that in the new South Africa the small number of women who do make it to executive level, do so as part of affirmative action as opposed to having the right skills, experience and qualifications (Booysen, 2007a, Cummings, 2004).
5.3.3. Objective 3: To make recommendations for the facilitation of upward mobility of women at Universities of Technology
This objective was for respondents to make recommendations to the Universities of Technology on how to overcome the barriers experienced by women in their career advancement.
5.3.3.1. Factors that the Universities of Technology can use to promote progression of women
The majority of respondents (40%) indicated that Universities of Technology could promote progression of women by being an equal opportunity employer. South Africa implemented equal opportunity and affirmative action legislation in 1994 to redress the past imbalances created by the apartheid regime (Mathur-Helm, 2004).
However, this study shows that respondents felt that they would progress in their careers only when their institutions are equal opportunity employers. Twenty-one (21) years after the implementation of legislation and policies for equal opportunity employers the impact is still not felt by female academics in institutions of Higher Education.
5.3.3.2. Factors that make it easier for women to progress in their careers
The majority of respondents indicated that flexible working arrangement (37%) and work-life balance (36%) are factors that make it easier to progress in their careers.
One of the biggest challenges facing South African women executives is maintaining the balance between career and family (Booysen, 2007b; Pile, 2004). Research in the UK and Canada also suggests that the retention of female executives in organisations is impacted by work-life balance (Orser, 1998; McLean, Brady &
Bachmann, 2003). According to April et al. (2007), the impact of work-life balance is likely to be greater in South Africa due to the societal pressures around women’s role in child rearing.